A/N: I'm back (again)! Sorry for the hiatus once again, but there was a FFN bug that caused some of the new chapters and stories to not show up, but it seems like that's fixed now, which means I can get back to bringing you the newest chapters!

Also, even though I haven't seen the Minecraft movie (yet), I am lowkey obsessed with the Chicken Jockey meme at the moment, and everyone's over-the-top theater reactions to it XD

Anyway, I honestly can't believe it's already been 20 years since we were introduced to Cosmo! Recently it was also the 3rd anniversary of Sonic 2 as well as the 22nd anniversary of Sonic X! Time flies so fast XD

This chapter marks the beginnings of a certain subplot between a mischievous cunning bat and a messenger robot... ;)

I would like to thank LiamFitz20, Jamari17, AuthorGen, emzhao07010, BarianHunterAlpha, Rodimus973, LiaDrakon, FighterTale, and sarajama95 for favoriting and following since my last chapter!

Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!


19 Reviews

blazenight01

I'm with you on that; relations between humans and Mobians can be complicated at times but somehow they make it all work.

danielman21

Happy late birthday! :D

toantakeri

1. Although it hadn't been revealed until now, that does sound like a compelling reason why Eggman is evil and I feel like I could explore that in more detail sometime.

2. I'm probably not gonna add the Diamond Cutters in this story, but thanks for the advice!

3. I just had to look up the Paradox Prism since I (shockingly) still haven't seen Sonic Prime yet, but chances are I might not add it in for the time being, but for future fanfics, who knows?

Sonic245

That's probably what some of my fans thought when I went into episode 5, and they thought I did a pretty good job with how Eggman deceived Knuckles. Let's see if I can go two for two!

soberan 123

Okay, I might reconsider adding the Egg Fleet, but if they do appear, it might not be in the way you expect ;)

Amelia Walker

Check DMs.

Guest

Absolutely! Nothing uplifts the spirits like a healthy dose of Chris trauma! And Cosmo too, I guess XD

CreativeKitty975

In return, I love reading your reviews, they always make my day as well!

I agree, and I really love exploring what she could write in her diary! I got the idea from the JP version of episode 67, and I thought to expand it to the other episodes too! Just a heads up, it won't appear in this chapter since it picks up immediately after the last chapter, but it will return next chapter!

It felt like a breath of fresh air to rewrite this episode with a new and improved version of Amy. After what happened to Sonic during Forces, she won't tolerate anyone kidnapping Sonic anymore!

I agree, I could write Chris and Tails scenes all day! :D

Oh, you know I have to include that subplot in here XD

Trash-lord and Bloodrick

This isn't the first time she's said something like this to me, but it is the first time she brought it up publicly. But yeah, it's basically nitpicking and self-promotion.

My replies to both of you were originally going to be a lot longer, but I scaled it back because I don't wanna talk too much about her publicly, since I don't want to spread drama and this isn't really the place for it anyway. But thank you both for standing up for me and defending me!

I don't think I even thought of that! That's a new level of dark and sad for Chris, knowing that he's physically too young for Helen now!

Thank you! Cosmo is quickly becoming a fun character for me to write.

Sluggy

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the adventure!

1. Even though I already finished writing the chapter before I read your review, I really like this idea, so I found a place to add it in!

2. I like these ideas too, and I think I can find a way to add them!

gregorian12

Thanks! :D

Super duper waffles

1. Baseball is the national sport of the United Federation, but soccer is a close second.

2. There was widespread panic in every single country because the greenery and vegetation started drying up without any explanation, and the wind stopped completely. Scientists were baffled as to what could have happened, but they made a connection to the Metarex. Only those in the Eggman Empire are truly aware of the Metarex because of the listening device Eggman attached to Sonic. Also, there were lots of eyewitnesses to Metarex Spike, but very few for Carrer, and no one but the heroes witnessed him stealing the Planet Egg because it was located in a protected sanctuary zone.

3. I think it's safe to say that that part of my headcanon has changed, but to be honest, I haven't given too much thought to other planets in Mobius' solar system, so I was open to all possibilities. But chapter 2 of Chaos on Earth Chronicles can still be part of an AU!

4. I'm actually not that familiar with other Japanese holidays (I have heard of White Day but I don't remember what that is), but I'll get back to you on this when I learn more about then.

5. I would imagine Chris already knows that Mobius is called Earth, since his friends told him that sometime during the events of Season 1.

6. Sonic Prime is not considered canon to my story at the moment.

7. Sonic has heard of Metal Gear, but he's never played it before.

8. Yes, I do consider Shadow Generations to be canon in my headcanon, but since I don't know all the details about it right now, I'm probably not gonna have Shadow's Doom powers in this story, at least until I can understand them better.

Five-Chosen

It's always intense to see an all-out race for the Chaos Emeralds when multiple parties are involved!

Guest

Surprisingly, Marvel and DC haven't contacted Sonic and his friends to make comic books about them; however, they did get permission to add them in as cameo appearances!

toantakeri

That's a good question! I'm not sure if it's gonna happen in this story that I know of yet, but I do have a future fanfic planned which is a Sonic X adaptation of Sonic 06, so there's plenty of room to explore the possibilities there.

Five-Chosen

Thanks, I'll go back and fix that!

That wouldn't be the first time Tails adapted his enemy's technology for his own use, so he and Chris can definitely get some mileage out of the Metarex's alien rope!

I have big plans for the moment when Rouge blackmails Bokkun! ;)

Guest

They didn't remove it, they were just hiding it for some reason. Same goes for a whole bunch of other stories, some of which didn't show up at all. That's the main reason why I took a hiatus recently, so I could make sure everyone sees my newest chapters.

Guest

Sage is here! :D


Chapter 64
Episode 56
The Sands of Deception


Secco – Third-person POV

Nearly twenty minutes later, the Blue Typhoon was airborne. Chris, Tails, and Amy were standing on the bridge, looking at the view below them as they flew at a low altitude in the direction of the city. Tails had been approved to land in the city, since the crew at the spaceport had confirmed that it was Tails' craft.

"It looks really impressive up close," Chris noted as he studied the city's unique skyline.

"I know, right?" Amy replied from her station behind him. "I'm hyped to explore it!"

As the Typhoon descended, it passed through the large energy barrier that surrounded the city. Tails pressed a few buttons on his console that activated the ship's landing gear and retracted the wings.

"Umm… We might have a problem," Tails quietly said.

"What's wrong?" Amy asked, looking at him.

"We might be too big for the landing pad," he said, looking at the ship's outer cameras on one of his monitors. "Can one of you verify?"

"Um, let's see…" Chris ran to his station and sat back down, studying the ground below the ship. "It might just be a perspective thing, because I think we have enough room, but just barely."

"Okay, that's good," Tails said as he activated several more controls on his touchpad, fully committing to the landing. Less than a minute later, the Typhoon made a beautiful touchdown on the runway, and there was a hiss of steam as the ship depressurized.

"Looks like we made it here first," Amy commented as she glanced outside. "We even made it here before Sonic!"

"I'm not worried about him," Tails said as he slipped off his seat and made his way toward the exit of the bridge. "He's been looking forward to running around in a big open space for a long time now, so he'll come join us when he's ready."

"Yeah, true," Amy said as she followed him and Chris off the bridge.

They made it off the bridge and into the open air of the Secco city. It reminded Chris of Tattooine in Star Wars if it had a modern architecture.

"I wonder, are there any cities on Mobius like this?" Chris asked as he took in the sights.

"Well, there's Apotos," Amy recalled, extending her hand out a bit. "It looks more or less like Greece on your world, I think–"

"Welcome to Hydo, my friends!" a jovial voice called to them, and they looked up to see the tribe elder from earlier approaching them.

"Harim!" Amy called with a wave. "You got here fast!"

"We've been here a while," Harim replied with a chuckle. "We made our way here as soon as the conflict started so we wouldn't be caught up in it.

"So if you had a force field," Tails said, glancing up at the protective dome, "then why didn't you stay here in the city?"

"A good question," Harim said. "Our force field is designed to protect Hydo from the elements, such as the intense dust storms, whirlwinds, and the recent flood. But it cannot protect us from alien invasions. As you saw, your ship passed through it harmlessly. Imagine what the Metarex ships could do."

"And that's why you hid in the cave…?" Amy asked in sympathy, her curiosity piqued.

"Yes," Harim said sadly, his eyes closed. "As the mayor of Hydo, I ordered a full evacuation of the city when the Metarex came. Everyone fled to smaller villages and into the surrounding mountains. We feared they would eventually destroy our city. We had no idea they were here for something different, something far worse. But when the battle began to unfold, we placed our trust in you and returned to the city… where we are now preparing to celebrate your victory!"

Tails held up his hands. "Umm, th-that's really thoughtful of you guys," he said, "but we were just here to help you get your Planet Egg back, and get the Chaos Emerald and leave–"

"It's fine, Tails," Amy said with a smile, patting Tails' shoulder. "Besides, we needed to come here anyway to get some supplies, right? The least we can do is celebrate with them. It'll be fun!"

"Hm…" Tails thought for a moment. "You do make a good point. Besides… It does feel good to be a hero."

"Yo, what's all this about?" came Sonic's voice as he skidded to a halt next to them.

"Our hero of the hour, just in time for the festivities!" Harim declared.

"You guys are having a party without me?" Sonic said in mock hurt, before a smirk quickly replaced it "Well, count me in! Let's get this party started!"

Shortly afterward, the celebration was in full swing. It consisted of a whole parade of wooden ships, catchy music, and rhythmic chants of "Oh yeah!" from the Hydons. As he and his friends joined in the march, Chris was thoroughly amazed at how intricate the celebration was. He had never seen anything like it before, not in any culture on Earth. The closest thing he could compare it to was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but it didn't compare to this experience.

"We call this the 'Heave-Ho Festival!'" Harim announced through a megaphone he had been holding since the parade started. "It is our cultural way to honor heroes! We leap for joy, and so should you!"

Sonic yelped in surprise as he was bodily lifted off the ground by several Hydons surrounding him. They immediately tossed him inside one of the wooden ships, which he didn't realize until he touched down inside that it was actually a trampoline. He found himself bouncing high into the air, nearly reaching the top of the mast.

"Oh yeah!" Harim cheered. "And now the rest of you! Everybody in!"

One by one, Tails was tossed onto the massive trampoline, then Chris, then Amy. The four of them were bouncing around on the trampoline, now fully caught up in the festivities. Tails let out a giggle as he spun his tails for extra air time, and Sonic was doing flips. Everyone was having fun, especially Sonic.

Tails and Amy were a bit dizzy at worst, but Chris was having a slightly hard time breathing as he bounced due to the planet's thick atmosphere. He realized he didn't remember the last time he was at a trampoline park. Sure, he had been to trampoline parks several times before when his grandpa took him, but he hadn't been to one since Sonic left Earth.

Chris had to wonder what the trampolines were made of, since they were far bouncier than the ones on Earth. Even though he was caught up in the festivities, he could hear music playing the whole time. It reminded him of kazoos and bagpipes, but far less annoying. In fact, there was a certain beauty in the way it was played, and it was super catchy to boot.

The four of them were so caught up in this unexpected turn in the festival that they didn't realize that Knuckles, Cream and Cheese, and Cosmo had emerged from an adjacent street and spotted them.

"Look, everyone!" Cream announced, motioning to the festivities ahead of them. "There's a parade!"

Cosmo, however, only blinked in confusion and slight concern. "Um… What are they doing…?"

"There's a trampoline!" Cream squealed, bouncing up and down once she noticed the others. "That looks like so much fun!"

Now it was Knuckles' turn to express his own confusion. He tilted his head to one side slightly.

"That's… fun…?"

"Yeah!" Cream said with an enthusiastic nod, her ears flopping behind her. "Mama takes me to the trampoline park sometimes, it's a lot of fun!"

"Chao chao!" Cheese added, flapping his small stubby hands.

"And there's a section for Chao too!" Cream added.

"Umm…" Cosmo said, trying to speak up but not wanting to sound rude. Luckily, it was enough to get Knuckles and Cream to look at her. "Th-They don't know we found the Chaos Emerald earlier, and, um… how do we tell them? Because I don't want to interrupt the…"

She paused halfway through her sentence, the gears in her head turning.

"It's okay, Miss Cosmo, we can tell them about it after the parade," Cream suggested.

That was when Cosmo acted. Before anyone could stop her, she had grabbed the Chaos Emerald out of Knuckles' hand and was now running directly toward the ship in the distance as it rounded a corner.

"What are you– Cosmo! Get back here!" Knuckles shouted as he ran after her. With a worried look in her eyes, Cream flapped her ears and flew after them both, and Cheese followed suit.

Cosmo was starting to run out of breath, but in almost a minute, she was able to catch up with the ship carrying her friends, and she held up the cyan Chaos Emerald.

"E-Everyone!" she called. "P-Please look at what we found!"

Sonic grinned between bounces on the trampoline. "Oh sweet, you found it!" he said. "Where was it?" His voice seemed to be somewhat distorted by the motion, but fortunately Cosmo could still understand him.

"It was Knuckles who found it," Cosmo explained, having to walk fast to keep up with the wooden ship. "It was buried deep in the sand."

She glanced back, and her heart skipped a beat when she saw Knuckles tearing his way through the streets to get to her, followed by Cream.

"Cool," Sonic said, flashing her a thumbs-up.

"Um… Why are you bouncing on the platform…?" Cosmo asked, her eyes shifting up and down with every bounce Sonic and his friends made. Since everyone else seemed to be bouncing too much to speak clearly, Chris spoke up.

"It's a celebration… for getting the Planet Egg back… and making the planet back to… normal…!" Chris said between bounces.

"Whoa, my head's spinning…!" Tails said, feeling his head with one hand on his way back down.

"Me too," Chris added.

Cosmo smiled, and her gaze shifted behind her as Knuckles and Cream caught up. The echidna looked like he was relaxed compared to before, knowing that the Emerald had not fallen into the wrong hands.

"Well, this is a wonderful celebration," Cosmo said, clasping her hands together as she watched the four of them having fun. "It's good to see that they're thanking you in such a big way."

"Did I hear one of you say you found something?" Harim asked, and Cosmo looked up at him. "Whatever it may be, it's cause for celebration! Throw them in! There's room for everybody!"

Seconds later, Cosmo and Cream found themselves bouncing on the massive trampoline with everybody else.

"Wheeeee~!" Cream squealed in joy. "This is so much fun, Cheese!"

"Hey, come join us, Knux!" Sonic called. However, Knuckles crossed his arms, a small smile on his face.

"Nah, I'm good," he said as he walked away from the group and disappeared into a random alley.

Little did the group know that they were being watched from afar…


The Crimson Egg – Third-person POV

From his command seat in the center of his ship's circular bridge, Eggman watched the parade unfold on the jumbo screen that spanned the front wall near the ceiling. The feed was brought to him by a probe robot that he had sent out a few minutes ago.

"And there they are, partying with the locals and wasting their time," Eggman scoffed, his arms crossed. "Perhaps I can use this opportunity to make away with the Emerald undetected."

The Crimson Egg had just landed on Secco; he had made a beeline for the planet as soon as he detected the Emerald's location. However, as his bad luck would have it, he had arrived too late to retrieve it. Even if he didn't find the Emerald, at least he didn't see any sign of the Metarex either. The part of the planet he was on was conveniently located several miles outside of a domed city.

Eggman's eyes did not deceive him when he saw the blue planet change to tan before his eyes as he was preparing to land. It was phenomenal, and he still did not have the answers as to why that happened. Something had to have happened on the surface.

Now that he had landed on his first alien planet on his voyage through space, his current scene was to locate the Emerald without being detected. So far, he had the element of secrecy, but his robots, as well as the lack of a cloaking device for his ship, were both dead giveaways.

"May I suggest scanning the atmosphere before our departure?" Decoe spoke.

"Yes, that's a must," Eggman said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Tell me what I can expect, because I would rather not have my first time in my new spacesuit be a stress test, even after all the simulations I put it through."

"Affirmative," Decoe responded as he got to work typing on one of the consoles. Bocoe did the same on his console. The bridge was quiet for about two minutes until Bocoe spoke.

"The atmosphere is hot and humid, not unlike a jungle, despite its desert-like appearance," he concluded.

"Furthermore, there is more carbon dioxide on Secco than there is on Mobius," Decoe added.

"That'll be a challenge for sure," Eggman said, stroking his mustache. "But only a slight one. However, my physique has been boosted thanks to the exercises I've been doing ever since we took off!" He relaxed in his seat and glanced at some of the other monitors, which showed nothing but open desert. "It could still be a while before I make my move, so I'll use this time to observe the planet and the Mobians closely. They won't make it off this rock with the Emerald."

"Has the drone been detected yet?" Decoe cautiously asked.

Eggman smirked. "Not yet," he said. "And it's all thanks to its cloaking device. Although, the force field was deceptively simple to breach. It seems that it was only designed for severe weather and not for intruders!" He laughed. "And look, we're detecting heat signatures as well! I see all the usual rodents – Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Tails, even Cream is here for some reason, and…"

He leaned forward, a look of confusion etched across his face.

"That's Christopher…" he said quietly. "I'm not entirely surprised to see him here, I suppose, but there's someone else with them. Someone I've never seen before." He leaned back in his seat. "It's uncanny, really. Ever since the hedgehog was blown to Earth, he's been magnetizing people into his friend group."

"Hasn't he already been doing that this whole time?" Bocoe asked.

"Technically yes," Eggman said, "but they seem to have their own lives to lead, and who can blame them? They can't hope to chase the wind."

"I have a question, Doctor," Decoe. "How did Chris appear in our dimension?"

"Warp Rings exist," Eggman replied nonchalantly, raising a finger in the air.

"From Earth?" Decoe followed up.

"Well… that I don't know," Eggman replied. "Humans lack the innate ability to create portals the way people like me or Tails can. Honestly, it's very perplexing the more I think about it, but I will have to find out at a later time."

"We're finally here~!" Bokkun sang out as he flew onto the bridge with the aid of his jetpack. He was wearing a safari hat in preparation for his departure. "I'm hyped, we landed on a brand new planet! Time to go exploring!"

"We have yet to generate a map of the planet," Decoe said, looking back at him. "So it could be a while before we depart."

"We are actively monitoring the activities of Sonic and his friends to ensure that we stay hidden," Bocoe explained.

"Awww…" Bokkun hung his head as he floated in midair. "But we've been stuck in here for a whole week…!"

"It could be close to an hour until we make our move," Eggman told him, "so go play on your tablet or something."

With a dejected sigh, Bokkun turned around and walked back to the elevator to the lower levels. He had been looking forward to exploring an alien planet for so long, and now he had to wait even longer! He wasn't like Decoe or Bocoe who didn't have to worry about thoughts or anything like that. In a way, Bokkun was more… Mobian.

However, shortly after he stepped out of the elevator and made his way back to his room, he froze. Someone was there. Or maybe it was just him and he was being paranoid. He had always felt a bit nervous to go into empty corridors in Eggman's base back on Mobius, so maybe it was just his fear playing up. He knew it was just him, Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe on the ship. So why did he feel like he wasn't alone.

"It's just you…" Bokkun whispered to himself. "There's no one else here… just your imagination… just your imagination…"

However, his imagination did not make up something slipping back into the shadows. His head immediately swiveled around, but as he started to approach, a slender gloved hand shot out from the darkness and covered his mouth, pulling him back. The robot's mechanical heart skipped a beat when he realized who had caught him.

"Now, now, you don't have to scream," the voice purred. "It's just little old me. Oh, and cute hat, by the way."

Bokkun mumbled something, and his captor let go of his mouth. "Rouge…?! Why are you here?!"

"Oh, I'll get there, don't worry," Rouge said, a smirk on her face. "I just wanna know if you'll do me a little favor first."

"I don't have to do anything for you!" Bokkun protested. "I'm gonna tell Eggman you're here and you're gonna be in so much–"

"Oh, you don't wanna do that, it won't be fun that way," Rouge said, suppressing a chuckle. "Not for me, at least. Do you want to know why?"

"Wh-Why…?" Bokkun asked, but his question was immediately answered when Rouge reached into Hammerspace and pulled out a heart-shaped locket. Bokkun's pupils shrunk as his initial look of confusion morphed into one of horror.

"Does this look familiar?" Rouge asked playfully.

Bokkun's face was now pale. "H-How did you get that…?! Gimme that! It's mine!"

He immediately lunged at Rouge, who dodged with the greatest of ease and, with a flap of her wings, hovered a few feet above the flustered robot.

"I even took a wee peekie at who your little crushy-wushy is," she cooed in a teasing tone. "Ahhh, young love… It would be a shame if I just– Whoopsie, my hand slipped, there goes your little secret. You know? So that's why I want you to do me a favor."

"B-B-But that's blackmail…!" Bokkun protested.

"Listen," Rouge said, landing on the ground again. "If you keep me a secret from Eggman, then I'll keep your little secret a secret. Understand?"

"Mm-hmm…" Bokkun said, his eyes shimmering and voice wavering. Rouge's lips curved upward into a bigger smirk.

"Good boy," she said. "Now listen carefully…"


The Metarex Tower – Third-person POV

Smoke continued to rise from the remains of the tower that once housed a small legion of fish-shaped Metarex soldiers. Since the departure of the newly-arrived Mobians, the area remained largely undisturbed…

Until now.

The sand and rocks began to buckle in one specific spot roughly one hundred feet away from the tower. Then, in a matter of seconds, a massive frog-shaped Metarex clawed its way to the surface and emerged into the natural sunlight. It slowly turned around and surveyed its surroundings. All of the Metarex soldiers were destroyed, and the water had receded. It didn't take a fraction of a second for it to know that something was wrong.

It hopped across the desolate plain, the ground rumbling slightly each time it landed on the ground. Inside its mechanical mind, it concluded that the Planet Egg had been restored, and it had been forewarned about a disturbance in the galaxy. And that disturbance had arrived on Secco and destroyed the tower and everyone in it.

And then it found the leader of the fish Metarex strewn all across the rocks, broken into about a dozen pieces of different sized. It was clearly overcome, despite being the king of the seas.

Its tongue protruded out of his mouth and connected to one of the leader's circuits as it probed its memory. It had to learn everything it could about its new enemies and avenge its fallen comrades. However, since the leader was destroyed, its memory was corrupted, and it appeared as static in the frog's memory. However, it was able to make out a few shapes that were roughly colored blue, pink, and maybe yellow. The last thing it saw was the blue shape attacking it head-on.

"Your simple task was to retrieve the Chaos Emerald and hold onto the Planet Egg until the harvesters arrive to collect them," the frog stated. "Disappointing."

With the new knowledge of the rebels in its mind, the frog hopped away.


Outside of Hydo – Third-person POV

No one seemed to notice Knuckles as he slipped away from the crowd and made his departure from the festival. He was not a big fan of the idea of bouncing on the trampoline with everyone, especially since he already did what he and his friends went there to do.

However, it wasn't like he was going to leave for another few hours, which meant he had time to kill. He took a moment to look around town and see if there was anything interesting he could buy. However, even though he and his friends had brought rings into space with them, he didn't know how to convert it into Secconese currency, so he decided to leave the money handling to Amy and the others who were more experienced with it than he was.

So he decided to leave town and take a look around the planet. But as he left Hydo's shopping district, he heard the familiar sound of an engine above him. He glanced up in shock to see the Eggmobile flying ahead of him in the distance, smoke pouring out of the back. He had a double take; what was Eggman doing all the way out there?! And what happened to him?!

In the moments that followed, an explosion rang out, and smoke rose into the air ahead of him. Before Knuckles realized it, he found himself breaking into a run toward where the hovercraft crashed. He glided between buildings, gaining airtime until he reached the roofs, where he glided from rooftop to rooftop to cover more distance. A million questions were running through his mind. Did Eggman follow him there? What happened to him. Did he get shot down? Who shot him down?

But most importantly…

Why is he here?

Knuckles breached the force field and left the city, and it took him nearly five minutes to locate the Eggmobile, which was half-buried inside a small crater that formed when it crashed. As the echidna got closer, Eggman looked up in surprise, before his expression seemed to change to relief.

"What happened?" Knuckles asked as he came to a stop at the edge of the crater. "And more importantly…" His brow furrowed. "…why are you here?"

"I'll start from the beginning if you'll bear with me," Eggman told him. He reached down into his seat and pulled out a fire extinguisher before stepping out of the Eggmobile. "I too am aware of the situation on Mobius. Those alien robots essentially killed our planet, and I no longer feel safe there. I take it that's why you left too?"

"No, we left to recover the Planet Eggs and defeat the Metarex," Knuckles explained, crossing his arms. "But that doesn't explain why you're here."

"Let me finish, let me finish," Eggman said, holding up one of his hands as he sprayed the fire extinguisher at the Eggmobile to put out the small fire. "As soon as the second robot appeared, I began monitoring the situation, and I learned that they were much stronger than I anticipated. Furthermore, the planet started to wither up, which was my cue to evacuate. But my spaceship ran out of fuel, so I was forced to land here. I decided to explore around in this Eggmobile and look for help. That's when the robots shot me down." He sighed as he put the fire extinguisher away, looking down at his craft. "…I barely escaped with my life."

"So are you saying there's more of them on this planet?" Knuckles asked incredulously.

Eggman blinked in surprise. "What do you mean, 'more'?" He shook his head, speaking before Knuckles could explain. "Y-Yes, I saw them with my own eyes. They are incredibly dangerous." His expression relaxed slightly, and he looked up at Knuckles. "However, I say if we work together, we can get off this rock and have at least a small chance of survival… especially since this planet is so hot and humid."

"Yeah, I noticed," Knuckles said. "Well, everyone else is gonna go shopping soon, so…" He glanced at the Eggmobile in the crater. "We could always pick up parts and then you can be on your way. And besides, we just beat the Metarex here, so this planet should be safe for now."

"Well, that's comforting to know," Eggman responded. "And if you have a Chaos Emerald too, I can jump-start my ship even faster."

Knuckles nodded. "Right, I'll see what I can do."


Hydo – Third-person POV

Just as quickly as the parade had started, it was over all too soon. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Cosmo, and Chris were all feeling varying levels of dizziness from bouncing on the trampoline for so long. Amy in particular was feeling sore because she landed on the trampoline funny, so she was trying to walk carefully and not make too much of a fuss, as annoying as it was. Cosmo, on the other hand, said she had never had an experience like that in her life, and it was surprisingly fun.

The celebrated heroes got to enjoy the feast they were promised, and now they were loading their newly-purchased equipment into the Typhoon. Although they had brought rings with them, they didn't need to worry about money, because Harim told them that everything they bought was on him since they were heroes.

Amy got the swing for the greenhouse that she had mentioned getting, and Tails remembered that he wanted to convert one of the unused spare rooms in the Typhoon into a pool room, so he got some equipment for that too such as a water pump and filtration system. More importantly, he purchased some parts for the ship's engine, as well as for a new feature for the ship that he wanted to test out.

"You know, we haven't seen Knuckles in a while," Chris said, commenting on the obvious.

"Yeah, he missed out on all the fun!" Amy pouted, crossing her arms. "What could possibly be more fun than celebrating with friends?"

"We should look for him before we go," Tails suggested. "For all we know, he probably went exploring."

Just then there was a sonic boom and Sonic skidded to a stop next to them. Tails didn't even flinch; he was used to this by now. However, Chris and Cosmo were startled by his sudden arrival.

"Ahh, that was a good run!" Sonic said, his hands behind his head in a relaxed pose. "This has gotta be my favorite planet so far."

"Sonic, this is the only planet we've been to so far," Amy stated. "More importantly, have you seen Knuckles?"

"Lemme think…" Sonic said. "Oh yeah, I saw him walking around by himself outside the city."

"What is he doing all the way out there?" Cosmo asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Beats me. You guys ready to roll? 'Cuz we'll pick up Knux and we'll be on our way if you are."

"Yup! We're ready, Sonic!" Tails replied with a thumbs-up.

"Then let's juice!" Sonic declared as he took off running, and the others ran after him.

It took about four minutes, but the group of six friends met up with Knuckles outside the city, and the echidna immediately told them all about his encounter with Dr. Eggman. Needless to say, they were all shocked, except for Cosmo, who didn't have a clue who they were talking about except for a few passing references in conversation on the Typhoon.

"Yeah, he told me he needs some parts to jumpstart his ship, so that's why I'm going back in town," Knuckles explained. "He also told me that since we have a common enemy now, he won't be doing any more evil acts for the rest of his life."

Everyone but Cosmo let out a collective groan in disbelief, knowing full well that Knuckles was being tricked again.

"Um, no offense, Mr. Knuckles, but Dr. Eggman is lying to you," Cream pointed out.

"Yeah, exactly!" Amy added, stepping toward Knuckles. "You have a big heart, but Eggman is always going to find a way to use that to his advantage–"

"Stop ganging up on me!" Knuckles exclaimed. He approached Cream and swiped the Emerald out of her hands, causing her to flinch and step backwards, her eyes wide as she stared at her now-empty hands, before looking up at Knuckles. She did not like his sudden change in behavior.

"I'll do what I feel is best with the Emerald," Knuckles told the group. "After all, Eggman promised to give it back once he was up in space."

"You gotta be kidding me, Knuckles…" Amy muttered under her breath as the echidna stomped away. However, in a flash, Sonic cut him off.

"Hey, chill, Knux," he told him, holding out his hands. "This isn't the first time Eggman's done something like this. Think about it first! Does he really mean that?"

"I did more than think," Knuckles said bluntly, holding the Emerald away from Sonic. "I made up my mind. And unless you want to fight, I suggest you get out of my way."

"Hey, I don't wanna fight, but if you–"

"Look, this isn't what I want either, but I guess you leave me no choice."

As Knuckles turned and set the Emerald down on a nearby rock, Cosmo felt a feeling of dread deep down as the situation escalated, and Chris felt worried too to a lesser extent. This was bringing back memories of when the two duked it out while he was trapped inside Eggman's Egg Citadel. While the situation was less dire this time, Eggman was still involved.

With a grunt, Knuckles launched the first punch at Sonic. The hedgehog dodged and traded a kick, and the echidna leaped out of the way. In seconds, both of them were trading blows and moving so fast that no one could keep track of where they were.

"Wh-Why are they fighting…?" Cosmo quietly asked, but no one seemed to hear her.

There was a sudden explosion as one of Knuckles' lightning-fast punches struck the ground about forty feet away, creating a fissure that spread across the ground ahead of them, and Cosmo yelped and scrambled back. Sonic cleared out of Knuckles' path and tried to counter him with punches of his own, as well as kicks and spin-dashes, but the echidna was too fast.

Alarm filled Cosmo's eyes as she realized that the fight was showing no sign of stopping, and she turned to the others.

"Wh-Why are they fighting?!" she called. "S-Someone stop them!"

However, she paled when she realized that every single one of her new acquaintances were alarmingly nonchalant.

"It's okay, really," Tails told her. "This is how they work out their problems."

"By fighting?!" Cosmo exclaimed. There were four people with her. Four. And not a single one of them was making a move to put an end to the fight.

"Hey, I know it looks bad, but I will admit," Chris said, looking at the distressed Seedrian, "I was worried about it too when I first saw them fighting when I first met everyone, and I couldn't do anything to stop it either. But then I guess I kinda got used to it over time."

"Same with me," Tails nodded. "When you hang out with them for as long as I have, you'll get used to it too."

Now Cosmo was getting frustrated. "But you should not be used to it! Someone could get seriously hurt!"

"Just let 'em keep at it," Amy said with a wan smile. "They'll stop on their own when they're good and done."

"Mm-hmm," Cream shrugged. "It's not a big deal."

Cosmo fell silent after that. What was wrong with everyone?! They were so nonchalant that two of their friends were fighting each other for no real reason at all. Then again, it was possible that she didn't understand them as well as they understood each other. Besides, she had only been with them for roughly a week.

But then she had a horrifying thought. What if this was the animal nature that her family had warned her about?! All of her new friends were fauna, and just like she had been told, they had an innate nature for fighting. Even worse was that some of them were willing to duke it out with each other over what appeared to be a disagreement, even though Cosmo did not know the scope of the situation as well as everyone else seemed to.

The fight got more violent the longer it dragged on, and the rapid punches seemed more like explosions. Cosmo was done with everyone's incompetence. She was ready to take matters into her own hands. She took a few steps out into the vast desert.

"Sonic! Knuckles! Stop fighting!" she shouted, but they didn't seem to hear her, because the fight kept going as if she wasn't there.

There was a pink blur somewhere behind her, and in the very next moment, two gloved hands pulled her back right as several small rocks cascaded right where she had been standing. Her heart pounded in her chest from the close call.

"Hey, don't get too close," Amy said, making her voice sound as gentle as she could. "I know you want to break up the fight. Trust me, I don't like it either, but I've known them both for a very long time. This is how they settle their differences. It's just the way they are."

"Yeah," Tails said with a nod as he approached them. "It's actually been like this since the day Sonic and I first met Knuckles. I was worried when they both started fighting, and they kept sparring with each other over pretty much nothing. But they're both strong, and neither of them get seriously hurt most of the time, so…" He shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I just kinda came to accept it as normal. And it helped that Sonic told me everything was fine too."

Cosmo said nothing, instead settling to nod her head. She was never taught how to reason with fauna. Besides, she was not a mediator.

Little did the group know that Eggman was attempting to sneak toward the Emerald. He was still a good fifty feet away from the mystical gem, and it was slow going, but he was wearing camo gear to blend in with the beige rocks around him.

The doctor grinned; his plan was working far better than he thought. He hadn't planned for Knuckles to straight-up fight Sonic, but he did, which meant Eggman had unintentionally set up a distraction. Even if it was unintentional, Eggman still took the credit for that.

He flinched when he heard the sound of a small jet engine, and he looked up to see Bokkun approaching him from behind. The robot flew low to the ground so he wouldn't be detected.

"Gaaahh!" Eggman panicked, scrambling behind a rock. "Bokkun! You're supposed to be back on the ship!"

"I-I was!" the small robot protested, fear evident in his voice. "But then I saw one of those robots from earlier, a-and… We need you, Doctor!"

Eggman's eyes widened from behind his glasses. "What? Why didn't you tell me this over the radio?" He shook his head. "Never mind. Go back and assess the situation with Decoe and Bocoe."

"N-No, that's the thing!" Bokkun told him. "This is a new threat, and we need your 300-IQ brain to do it because you're better at this thing than we are."

Eggman thought this over before letting out a sigh. Bokkun was right; if he did indeed detect the presence of the Metarex on this planet, then there was nothing his robots could do without the guidance of Eggman.

Right as Eggman turned around and crawled after his messenger robot, he heard the sound of footsteps on the rocks behind him, and his eyes widened a bit as he turned to see Amy standing there, leaning against the handle of her Piko Piko Hammer and one hand on her hip.

"Y'know, you're terrible at being sneaky," she commented with a smirk.

"I-I can explain!" Eggman protested, holding his hands out, but Amy wasn't buying it. She took a few steps closer to Eggman, who slowly backed away from her in fear.

"It better be good," she said, her eyes narrowing into slits. "There's no other reason you would fly all the way out here, right? Riiight…?"

"Hear me out, will you?" Eggman said, making sure his voice was hushed. "M-My ship broke down, and I had to come here for resources–"

"Guys!" Amy called to everyone behind her. "Eggman's here!"

Eggman's heart leaped in his chest, and Bokkun was the first to flee the scene. Just like that, their cover was blown. Eggman scrambled to his feet, but since didn't have a jetpack nor was he small or lightweight like Bokkun, he wasn't so lucky. He only managed to take a few steps before Tails flew in front of him, cutting him off within seconds. Chris and Cream were right behind him.

Amy's shrill voice had reached Sonic and Knuckles too, and Sonic relaxed himself, as did Knuckles who froze mid-punch.

"Hey, time out, Knux!" Sonic called to his rival, who whipped his head over to see the flustered doctor in the distance. In the very next moment, the echidna marched straight toward Eggman, who looked at him with uncertainty.

"Eggman," Knuckles said when he got close enough. "You could have waited there for me to bring the parts to you. That was your end of the deal, right? So why did you come all the way out here instead?"

Eggman opened his mouth to come up with an explanation that would satisfy Knuckles, but Amy cut him off.

"Save it," she told him. "I know you're here for the Emerald, and tricking Knuckles again is not gonna fly past me." She lifted her hammer and pointed the blunt end of it at Eggman's head. "Now get lost!"

"I would," Eggman said, his rotund body tensing up. "Oh, believe me, I would. I have far better things to do than standing around on a desert planet, surrounded by the banes of my existence. But the robots on this planet shot down my Eggmobile, which means I have no way of getting back to my ship. So yes, for all intents and purposes, I really am lost."

"You could walk though…?" Amy responded, sounding just as confused as the others probably felt.

"That's not the point–" Eggman said, before Amy picked up her hammer and hefted it over her shoulder, making him flinch. Seconds later, Knuckles ran over and scooped up the doctor before running about twenty feet away from Amy and setting him down on a rock.

"Seriously, you need to go on a diet," Knuckles panted. "You're heavy, even for me!"

Eggman's jaw dropped in mock injury. "… That was rude! I'll have you know I was exercising the whole trip here!"

"Yeah, exercising new ways to lie was what you were doing," Sonic said as he made his way over to the group. "You just admitted you came here on purpose!"

Eggman gritted his teeth, realizing he was caught in his lie.

"You just made that up, hedgehog," Eggman said in a low voice, avoiding eye contact with anyone. "Don't twist my words. For all you know, I was heading to a completely different planet."

"But this is the only planet in this sector," Tails pointed out. "I already factored in the time it takes for Secco to revolve around the sun, and there are no other planets in conjunction to both Mobius and Secco." He held up a finger. "Besides, this planet doesn't have any moons. In other words, you came here on purpose!"

Before Eggman could retort, the ground suddenly began to rumble all around them.

"E-Earthquake!" Chris blurted in fright as he dropped to the ground. Even though he was an adult now, his seismophobia was just as strong as it was when he was a kid. He glanced at the rock next to him, making sure the Emerald on top of it was safe.

"It's not an earthquake, it's…" Knuckles started to say as he kept his balance. His eyes darted in a specific direction in the distance, and everyone gradually followed his gaze.

About a hundred feet away from them was a massive robot that was staring them down. It was tall and boxy, and its blue, red, and silver color scheme was a stark contrast to the desert it stood in.

"Oh, I get it!" Sonic remarked, looking back at Eggman. "It was all a trick so you could stall for time while your giant robot came to take the Emerald!"

"I wish I had thought of that– Listen pincusion, I'm the evil genius here," Eggman snapped, briefly caught off guard by Sonic's quip.

Everyone was so focused on Eggman and his robot that they didn't notice that Cosmo was panicking. She tried to step away from the robot, but she stumbled backwards.

"M-M-Metarex…!" she squeaked, right before the robot bent down to her and grabbed her with its right hand before standing upright again. The last thing she heard was her friends calling her name before the hand closed around her.

"Doctor, I got your signal and prepared the Egg Mars for immediate deployment," Decoe called to Eggman, who stood up and made his way toward the robot.

"Furthermore, we now have a hostage in case the situation escalates," Bocoe added.

"Excellent! Thanks for the help I didn't ask for!" Eggman called up to his robot assistants.

"You're welcome, Doctor!" both robots called, somehow not detecting his sarcasm at all.

The Egg Mars lowered its free hand toward Eggman so he could climb in, and Eggman stepped onto its open palm.

"Oh no you don't! You're not getting away from me, Eggman!" Amy called as she ran toward Eggman with her hammer ready to swing, but the hand lifted off the ground at the last second right as Amy got there.

"All those years of running after your beloved Sonic, and you're still too slow," Eggman taunted as he rose into the air.

Amy gritted her teeth, and she gripped her hammer tighter, holding it above her head. She looked like she wanted to hurl it straight at Eggman's face for that insult.

"You take that back right now, jerk!" she shouted, but Sonic stepped in before she could do anything rash.

"Hey, anyone who can keep up with me is fast in my book," he declared. Amy still looked tense, but she visibly relaxed slightly knowing that Sonic was there for her.

"And yet here I am, one step ahead of you rodents," Eggman said. "You don't understand. You all thought I was stranded on this planet, when in fact, not only can I leave any time I want, but I am also fully capable of outsmarting you in every way as usual. In fact, I already have. Look at Knuckles!"

Knuckles blinked in confusion before the gears in his head started to turn, and he pieced together the situation before it all clicked. He looked up at the doctor, flames in his purple eyes.

"EGGMAN!" he roared before storming toward the robot.

Eggman chuckled. "Took you long enough, my friend. You see, when I was sent to Earth, I was able to subdue you with just the bare basics, and up here in space, you'll see that the situation is no different."

"Y'know, Knux, if it's too good to be true, it probably is," Sonic told the echidna. "Words to live by!"

"You don't need to remind me twice…" Knuckles muttered, folding his arms.

The whole time Sonic and Knuckles were dealing with Eggman, Tails, Amy, and Cream were launching attacks against the Egg Mars' right arm, trying to free Cosmo, but the arm was not budging. And it didn't help that the arm was rising higher than they could easily reach.

"So Doc, where'd you find this Optimus Prime bootleg?" Sonic asked, zipping around the mech to study it. "And how'd you fit it in your ship, anyway? 'Cuz you know I can just 'transform' it into a pile of scrap heap if you're having trouble controlling it."

"VR," Eggman said nonchalantly as he stepped off the hand and into the cockpit. He ditched the camo gear and dropped it on the floor of the cockpit. "Note to self, turn off safety on the arms when I need to get up here in a hurry. That lift was too slow."

He slipped on a VR headset that was resting on the console before pressing a button. "Interface smart gloves," he commanded to his console. There was a hum as the Egg Mars' movements were now synced with the movements of Eggman's hands. Turning his attention back to the group as a whole, he continued.

"I will say it again. You don't realize the situation you're in. Thanks to Decoe and Bocoe, I now have a hostage. I learned from Operation Endgame; taking a hostage early ultimately pays off to ensure my victory, regardless of the fact that you destroyed the Death Egg's generator and sent us all back here. And since you're so insolent, Sonic, the Egg Mars folds up for compact storage, and it's more resilient than your puny resistance."

"Oh, so it really is a Transformer!" Sonic said with a laugh. "Who would have guessed? And since you went and tricked Knux again, doesn't that make you a Decepticon?"

Eggman gritted his teeth and clenched his left fist, and the robot copied his hand movement. The heroes winced at the sound of grinding metal.

"Sonic, shut up and hand over the Chaos Emerald or I'll scatter your friend to the four winds like the flower she is!" Eggman demanded. To punctuate how serious she was, he opened his right hand, and the robot followed suit, revealing Cosmo. The terrified Seedrian was cowering in the middle of the palm of the robot's hand. She was too scared to jump in case something happened to her on the way down, and the moment she caught a glimpse of her friends' worried faces, she buried her own face in her hands.

"H-Help me…!" she whimpered, too scared to raise her voice.

"Cosmo!" Tails and Cream called to her at the same time.

"Let her go!" Amy demanded. "She's not comfortable around new people right away, and you're making it worse!"

"That's really not my problem," Eggman stated, his voice being amplified by the robot's loudspeaker. "I'm just doing what I have to do to win. And besides, no supervillain would ever shrug their shoulders and say 'Sure!" and let their prisoners go just because the good guy told them to. That's unrealistic, not to mention anticlimactic. I am a man of bravado. I have standards to uphold."

"Forget standards!" Knuckles shouted. "I already owe you a beatdown for tricking me, and now I owe you another one for taking a hostage! You better get ready!"

"Heh, I'd love to see you try!" Eggman said with a grin.

Since everyone was focused on Eggman, no one saw Rouge sneaking her way through the rocks toward the Chaos Emerald. Like Eggman before her, she was slow and quiet.

However, she froze when another rumbling came from nearby. She remained still, looking around to see what could be causing the ground to shake for a second time.

Everyone else seemed to be caught off guard by the second earthquake in five minutes, but this time, even Eggman was confused.

"You got another robot for us, Doc?" Sonic asked.

"Don't look at me!" Eggman told him. "I only have the one giant robot, for now!"

Seconds later, a deep croak reverberated through the air as a massive frog robot emerged from below the ground. His sudden appearance threw the Chaos Emerald and the rock it had been resting on into the air, and since Chris had been standing guard next to it, he too was thrown about twenty feet into the air. He cried out before being caught by Sonic less than a second later, before he would have started falling back down.

As Sonic set Chris back down, the robot instantaneously used its dagger-like tongue to eat and swallow the Chaos Emerald. Sonic could have blinked; it was there one moment and gone in a split second.

Everyone was shocked; all of this happened within fifteen seconds.

"Is that a Metarex?" Knuckles asked aside to Tails and Amy, and they both nodded. The robot had all the hallmarks of a Metarex that they had seen so far – alien-like metallic design, strange horns, and a single large eye.

"I didn't think there were more Metarex here…!" Cream said.

"Me neither," Amy responded, taking a defensive stance next to her friend.

Rouge, realizing that she could no longer intervene and retrieve the Emerald herself, decided to make her departure while everyone else was distracted. She decided not to fly, and instead crawled along the ground until she made it to one of the craters that were formed in Sonic and Knuckles' fight. Once she made it there, she flapped her wings and took off. She told herself she would get the Emerald another day, and it was no big deal.

"Change of plans!" Eggman declared. "You're off the hook for now, Sonic, but you're not out of the water yet."

"Can we not use that metaphor, Eggman…?" Sonic whined, throwing wary glances at the frog Metarex.

"We'll get you down, Cosmo!" Tails called to the now-hyperventilating Seedrian. "Hang in there!"

"Cosmo, that's your name…?" Eggman mused to himself. "You can have Cosmo back, but I will get that Emerald. I need it to power my ship."

"Your facade is shallow."

Everyone froze when they heard the deep guttural voice coming from the frog Metarex, and a chill ran through Amy's spine. His voice was scary and imposing, and she hadn't even seen what kind of moves and attacks it had.

Without a word, Eggman turned the Egg Mars' wrist, and Cosmo screamed as she fell from it headfirst. Tails gasped as he ran toward her, but Knuckles was closer and he got there first. He extended his arms and caught her before setting her down on the ground.

"You okay?" he asked her. The trembling Seedrian shook her head, before she looked at the Metarex that sat there.

"We have to get the Chaos Emerald back," she spoke up, her voice shaking as she spoke. "If you destroyed the Metarex back on Mobius, you can destroy this one too."

"Woo, someone's sounding confident today!" she heard Sonic tell her, and when she looked up, she saw through her tears that Sonic was grinning at her. It helped her to feel a little better on the inside, despite the traumatic experience she had just been subjected to. However, her moment of inner peace was cut short when the Metarex spoke again.

"I did not think you would overcome the Gillmen so easily," he said, not moving from his spot.

"Surprised?" Sonic responded, his grin unwavering as he looked at the Metarex. However, he was forced to dart back when the giant frog robot took a small hop toward the Egg Mars, and the ground shook when it landed.

"Guys, get back!" Knuckles urged the group, who did as they were told. Once he was far away enough, he took up an aggressive stance. But before the echidna could run forward, there came a grating noise from the Egg Mars, and the fingers on its right hand twisted and folded into each other, forming a drill.

"You weren't kidding when you said it was a Transformer, Sonic!" Tails remarked.

"Pipe down and watch a genius at work!" Eggman barked as he motioned for his robot to step toward the Metarex. Then he plunged the drill directly into the Metarex's steel hide… or at least, that's what he tried to do. Sparks flew from the point of the drill, but other than that, there was no damage at all.

"You disturb order in this system," the Metarex declared, "and yet you cannot penetrate my armor."

"What?!" Eggman exclaimed. "What are you made of?!"

As if to answer Eggman's question, the Metarex's tongue protruded from his mouth, wrapping itself around the drill at lightning-fast speed. Then he pulled back on his tongue, causing the Egg Mars to lose its balance and flip onto its back with a tremendous crash that kicked up dust and sand. Once Eggman's robot was down for the count, Jumpee letting go and retracting its tongue back into his mouth.

"Experience," he answered.

"Experience, huh?" Eggman said. "I'll have you know I have a whole lot of experience with robots like you. Thirty-four years, to be exact!"

"It is as if I cannot tell the difference," the Metarex stated flippantly.

Chris scrambled away from the Metarex and the Egg Mars, knowing full well that there was nothing he could do in a situation like this. He was just a bit player in a big stage act starring Eggman and the Metarex.

"Hey Tails, do we get the Typhoon?" he asked once he was close to the fox.

Tails hesitated for a moment, thinking Chris' question over. "Not… yet," he finally said, his eyes not moving from the Metarex. "Let's do what we can on our own for now, but I'll keep that in mind."

"Okay," Chris said, his voice shaking. He hated feeling this helpless. He wanted to help his friends, but he had to face it, there was nothing he personally could do to change anything. Maybe it was just one of those situations.

"Doctor," Decoe spoke up within the cockpit of the Egg Mars. "Do we allow Sonic to destroy this robot?"

"No way!" Eggman retorted. "We go big or go home! I refuse to lose to a robot with such a primitive design."

"I am Metarex Jumpee," the Metarex declared. "My design is flawless."

"So is my genius," Eggman fired back, before pointing straight ahead. "Decoe! Bocoe! Get this robot back up on the double!"

"Yes, Doctor!" the two robots responded. They gripped their respective controls as they took over the manual controls and began the tedious process of maneuvering the Egg Mars into a standing position.

With a battle cry, Amy charged toward Jumpee with her hammer ready to swing. Once she got close enough, she slammed it against the Metarex's hull with everything she had, but not only did it not do any damage, but the shock reverberated up her hammer and into her hands. With a yelp of pain, she dropped her weapon as she held onto her numb hands. Even worse, Jumpee didn't move an inch.

"Amy!" Tails called from the distance in shock. However, Amy was not so easily deterred.

"I will get that Emerald back from you, and that's a promise!" she declared as she picked up her hammer again and faced the Metarex.

"That is a false prophecy," Jumpee told her. "You do not know how to extract the true power of the Chaos Emeralds the way the Metarex do."

As Amy was dealing with Jumpee, the Egg Mars finished standing back up to its full height of 65 feet, nearly twice as tall as Jumpee, not that it was intimidated in the least.

"Heh, listen to you, blustering like the wind in the Mystic Ruins," Eggman gloated. "And besides, what do you mean by their true power? I want to know."

"Such knowledge is not fit for those who disturb the order of the universe," Jumpee stated.

Eggman shrugged. "Well, I tried."

Meanwhile, Cream was not having any better luck herself as she threw Cheese full-force at the back of Jumpee. The Chao bounced harmlessly off his armor, not even leaving a dent. Cream flapped her ears and flew back to catch Cheese before he could fly too far away from her.

"Gotcha!" she said as Cheese landed safely in her arms.

Amy let out an annoyed sigh. She couldn't believe that she couldn't damage Jumpee in the slightest. With no other choice, she ran back and rejoined Tails, Chris, and Cosmo.

"Is now a good time to get the Typhoon?" she asked as she caught up to the others.

Tails shakily nodded. "Y-Yeah, it's Typhoon time," he said as he took a few steps back. Spinning his tails, he took off and blasted through the sky. To the naked eye, he looked like an orange streak that moved through the air.

However, as his luck would have it, Jumpee noticed him and hopped in place, twisting his body about ninety degrees to the left to face the escaping fox. Then, before Tails could get very far, Jumpee fired his tongue at him in an attempt to impale him, but he noticed it at the last second and did a barrel roll in midair to avoid it.

"Keep him busy!" Tails called to the others before he disappeared beyond the horizon.

Using his gyro controls, Eggman turned the Egg Mars to face his new opponent. "I'll have you know that I've had all seven Chaos Emeralds in my possession multiple times, and I used them to conquer and enslave the entire planet twice !"

But Jumpee didn't respond right away, and Eggman took it he wasn't impressed.

"What is one planet compared to a galaxy?" Jumpee countered at last.

"One step at a time, my friend," Eggman said as he pressed a few buttons on one of his gloves, which converted one of the Egg Mars' hands into a gigantic sword. "With complete control over a single planet, my rule is more concentrated, which means I can detect the slightest hint of resistance."

He motioned for the Egg Mars to move toward Jumpee as a new thought suddenly hit him.

"I can also detect the slightest bluff," he declared. "For instance, you just told me you and your kind know everything about the Chaos Emeralds. And yet it wasn't until last week that the Metarex came to our planet to get them. So tell me, how do you know so much about something you only had your hands on for five minutes? If you know anything about them, that is."

To Eggman's dismay, the Metarex frog did not answer. Even if it did, it probably would have told him that that knowledge wasn't for him.

"Giving me the silent treatment, now are we?" Eggman said. "Have it your way, but I will discover your little secrets one way or another."

He swung his sword at Jumpee, who instantaneously reacted and leaped high into the air above the Egg Mars. He landed with a huge ground-shaking thud on the other side of the robot, but just as Eggman was turning it around to face his adversary, Jumpee launched its tongue at the mech's legs, immobilizing it.

"You can't fool me with the same trick twice!" Eggman declared as he reached the robot's arm down and grabbed Jumpee's tongue. But the moment it had a firm grasp on the metal tongue, it produced a strong electric current that traveled through the robot's entire circuitry and electrocuted Eggman, Decoe, and Bocoe. It lasted for a solid five seconds before Eggman was forced to make the robot let go of Jumpee's tongue.

Eggman collapsed onto his hands and knees, before ripping off the VR headset and dropping it on the floor next to him. Smoke billowed from his body from the electricity, and his bright red suit was darkened and tarnished with soot. Looking over, he saw that his two robots were completely shorted out. However, since Eggman's gloves were still synced with the Egg Mars' motion control system, the motion of him collapsing onto his hands and knees caused the robot to do the same, which caused him to be thrown against one side of the cockpit.

An alarm blared through the cockpit as the robot started to explode, and even though Eggman was mostly unresponsive, he had enough strength left in him to press a button on the console before he collapsed onto the floor. In the next moment, the Egg Mars' head detached and engaged its autopilot before flying back toward the Crimson Egg.

Jumpee watched Eggman's escape pod go, before turning to face the head directly. It extended its tongue directly at the escape pod before anyone else could react. Before the tongue could pierce through the Egg Mars' escaping head, Sonic instantaneously reacted. He broke the sound barrier and caught up with the tongue, executing a well-placed spin-dash to divert it off-course. Thanks to its durability, it didn't do anything other than make the Metarex withdraw its tongue.

"You won't win against us that easily!" Knuckles roared as he donned his Shovel Claws and charged toward the Metarex. Chris and Cosmo watched in amazement at how fast the echidna blazed across the desert. With a massive leap, he smashed his fist through Jumpee's eye… except that wasn't what happened, because no damage was done whatsoever, not even a scratch.

"You gotta be kidding, I was sure that was your weak spot…" Knuckles said.

"Weak spots are obsolete," Jumpee said as he hopped in place to face the Mobians.

Sonic smirked. "We'll see about that," he said as he raced toward Jumpee, with Amy right behind him. Together, they buffeted the lone Metarex with a series of spin-dashes and hammer strikes, all of which seemed to do nothing.

Cream clasped her hands together in worry as the streaks of blue and pink moved all across and around the Metarex, trying to hit it at every conceivable angle. But no matter what they did, it seemed like absolutely nothing was able to be done against such a monstrosity!

"The Metarex always learn from their past losses," Cosmo said in a monotone voice from nearby, not taking her eyes off the fight for a second.

Chris blinked. "That would explain why it doesn't seem to have any weak spots," he commented, and Cosmo nodded. "I noticed recently, you seem know a lot about the Metarex."

Cosmo was silent for a moment, before she spoke. "I do know a lot about them, but there is a lot I don't know… and a lot I wish I didn't know."

Seconds after she said that, the Seedrian suddenly gasped and looked away, covering her eyes as Jumpee lashed out with its massive tongue again. It impaled the ground right in front of Sonic, and it would have hit him if it wasn't for his fast thinking and faster movements.

"I fail to see how you destroyed Spike," Jumpee said once it retracted its tongue. Sonic chuckled in response.

"Just the power of teamwork, and a little surprise up our sleeve!" he said with a grin.

However, Jumpee did not seem fazed.

"The three of you are like flies," he said. "Frogs eat flies."

"That's not gonna happen!" Amy declared as she struck the Metarex's head with her hammer, once again doing nothing. "And since you're huge, that means you gotta have some blind spots, right?"

As she ran around to the back of Jumpee and struck it from every angle, looking for a weak spot, Jumpee sat there doing nothing and took the hits, knowing full well that its armor would protect itself.

"The Gillmen's Boss retained possession of the Planet Egg until reinforcements arrived to claim it along with the Chaos Emerald," Jumpee explained, and Amy paused long enough to listen. "I was their escort; therefore, it is my duty to ensure that nothing happens to them before they arrive."

Cream stood there in worry when she heard this. Did he just imply that more Metarex were coming? She looked over to see that Cosmo had the same expression of dread after she heard Jumpee's words.

"Um, Miss Cosmo? Mr. Chris?" she spoke up, and the two of them looked at her. "Did either of you see the Planet Egg earlier?"

"No, I did not," Cosmo responded, and Chris shook his head; he hadn't seen it either. "I was not aware that anyone was in danger until we arrived in Hydo earlier."

Suddenly Jumpee slowly repositioned itself until it was facing a specific direction away from the group, away from the smoldering wreckage of the Egg Mars.

And then it bent its legs and leaped into the air.

And took another leap.

It was on the move.

And it was moving fast .

"Hey, where ya going, big guy?" Sonic called. "We're over here!"

But Jumpee did not respond. Amy caught up to Sonic, and so did Knuckles.

"Sonic, it's going in the direction we came from," she told him, slowing down as she caught up to him. "The Metarex tower is back that way, the one we destroyed. I think it's looking for the Planet Egg!"

As soon as Cosmo heard this, she was once again overtaken with dread. As soon as Jumpee would inevitably take the Planet Egg, the entire planet would flood again, undoing all of her new acquaintances' hard work!

The heroes wasted no time running after Jumpee, attacking it with everything they had

"Any ideas on how we can stop this thing?" Amy called, flinching at the pebbles and dust that Jumpee kicked up in his wake every time it landed.

"I'm thinking, but for now, just hit 'im with all you got!" Sonic declared as he rapidly spin-dashed Jumpee from the front. "Or at least try and slow him down."

As Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles relentlessly tried to pound their way through Jumpee's armor, Cream and Cheese ran toward them and leaped into the fray. If they had stayed behind a second longer, they would have seen Chris start to run in the opposite direction. His face was creased with determination.

However, his decision didn't go completely unnoticed by Cream, who saw him disappear behind a rocky hill.

"Come on, Cream!" Amy called to her from well ahead of her. Cream shook herself from her trance and turned to her friend.

"R-Right! Sorry, Miss Amy!" she apologized. She flapped her ears and took off after the fleeing Metarex, with Cheese right behind her. When she caught up, Sonic and Knuckles were already hard at work trying to hold it back.

"This thing is like a tank!" Knuckles called from on top of Jumpee's back. The moment the Metarex landed on the ground again, Knuckles was shaken off, but he used his Shovel Claws to try to anchor himself into his armor. But since no damage could be done, the Shovel Claws did nothing more than scratch the metal as the echidna landed back on the ground.

"Aaaand just got an idea!" Sonic called as he blasted across the desert ahead of Jumpee. "Clear out, gang! Hedgehog coming through!"

Knuckles, Amy, and Cream nodded and quickly backed away from the frog Metarex, confused as to what Sonic was planning. However, their questions were answered as Sonic ran in tight circles around Jumpee.

"Oh, that's the same thing he did to the Metarex on Mobius!" Knuckles realized, recognizing what Sonic was up to.

"You got this, Sonic!" Amy called, cupping her hands to her mouth.

However, as the ground underneath Jumpee started to cave in and collapse on itself, Jumpee leaped clear at the last possible second and landed safely outside the newly-formed sinkhole, shaking the ground near Sonic when he landed.

"Oh well, worth a shot," Sonic said with a shrug, "but hey, I got more ideas where that one came from!"

Running ahead of the Metarex, he began to run in complex patterns, moving his feet in such a way that he kicked up rocks and sand and compacted them into a large, tall slope that stood slightly taller than Jumpee, and almost as tall as the Egg Mars. Since Sonic was moving at just over the speed of sound, he was able to accomplish this task in a matter of roughly ten seconds. The resulting sonic boom made his friends flinch and cover their ears.

Once he was finished, Sonic stood atop the barricade he had formed and crossed his arms, a smirk on his face as he anticipated what Jumpee would do about it. However, his smirk fell when Jumpee reared himself back, and leaped roughly two hundred feet into the air. Amy and Cream let out exclamations of shock as Jumpee soared over the barricade, easily clearing it, and landed expertly on the other side.

A few seconds later, Knuckles finally found his voice. "…Okay, how can something that big jump so stupidly high?!"

"Heh, now I know how the cops felt when I jumped over their barricade," Sonic added, recalling his first trip to Earth.

"We are the supreme race of the universe," Jumpee declared as he kept hopping ahead of the group.

"After him!" Knuckles called to his friends. Sonic, Amy, and Cream joined him, and together they tried everything they could to either damage Jumpee or slow him down by altering the terrain. But after ten minutes, their futility was showing, and no matter what they did, they could not get the Metarex frog to slow down. It was like trying to stop a train from the outside.

At one point, large spikes emerged from Jumpee's chest, and he tried to use them to crush the heroes when he landed. But the four Mobians were smart enough to not be directly underneath him, since he had to weigh at least a good fifteen tons. Amy was close though, and she tried to hammer the spikes off, but her hammer couldn't do anything, and neither could Cream using Cheese Shot.

"What are you even made of?!" Knuckles exclaimed, now starting to get frustrated.

"You cannot comprehend it," Jumpee told him. "Therefore, your query is not worth entertaining."

However, Sonic wasn't so easily deterred. "Then I guess you can't comprehend what we're made of either!" he declared. Taking a deep breath, he ricocheted off of Jumpee and several large nearby rocks and back again like a pinball, striking his opponent dozens of times per second. But about twenty seconds later, Sonic stopped when he realized it wasn't working.

"You are made of flesh and bone," Jumpee said in his intimidating deep voice. "The epitome of futility."

"But hey, you did something at least!" Knuckles said, pointing to the side of Jumpee. Sure enough, there was a noticeable dent in the Metarex's armor.

"Not so invincible now, are we?" Sonic said with a grin.

Now that there was a break in the fight at long last, Cream ran up to the others, panting for a moment from the exertion she had put into the fight thus far. She looked up at Amy, who was the closest to her.

"Um, I saw Mr. Chris running away earlier," she said, an earnest look in her eyes. "I'm worried about him…"

Amy looked surprised and a bit worried. "What…?"

"Chao chao," Cheese responded from next to Cream.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you earlier," Cream said, glancing down at the ground. "I didn't get a chance to because we were fighting."

"Maybe he was scared…?" Amy wondered, cautiously glancing back at Jumpee behind the group.

Having noticed the conversation, Sonic glanced in their direction. "Maybe, but I'm gonna talk to him after this," Sonic said. "Heads up!"

The hedgehog's warning came just in time. Jumpee used the group's distraction to reposition itself and attack with its tongue, nearly impaling Knuckles, but he rolled out of the way just in time, and the four Mobians scattered in all directions. Sonic stood at a considerable distance from his opponent and waved his arms.

"Hey, big and ugly!" Sonic taunted. "Over here!"

Jumpee lashed out with its tongue at Sonic, but in the blink of an eye, the hedgehog was now standing in a completely different part of the desert, even farther away from Jumpee than he was before.

"Correction, I'm over here now! Bet you can't keep up with me!"

"Hey, Metarex!"

At the unexpected sound of Chris' voice ringing across the desert, the heroes turned to see the human running into the view toward the general direction of the Metarex. In his hands was a large, round, white object.

Sonic squinted in disbelief. "Hold up, is that the Planet Egg…?"

"What is he doing…?" Amy asked, covering her mouth in shock. "And how did he do that?!"

"I got your Planet Egg right here!" Chris called to the Metarex, holding the object high. "Come and get it! You know you wanna!"

"You know…" Knuckles started to say, "If Cosmo finds out about this…" His voice trailed off. "This is gonna spell disaster all over…"

Jumpee took a single hop toward Chris, who slowed to a stop. As the Metarex studied the object in Chris' hands, Sonic could see that the human was sweating all over, either from fear or the exertion of running for so long.

"That is not the Planet Egg," the Metarex immediately declared. The Mobians' stomachs simultaneously fell when they heard this. "Removing the Planet Egg would subject this planet to immediate decay. For your deception, you will be the first to die."

Jumper took a giant leap toward Chris, who instantly realized his mistake and ran in the opposite direction. He didn't think the Metarex would see through his plan that easily, and now he felt foolish, not to mention terrified. Jumpee was now chasing him, forcing him to run for his life.

Behind him, Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and Cheese were trying to slow Jumpee down with everything they had. But just like before, they were like flies swarming around an elephant: annoying and completely ineffective, but it didn't stop them from trying to either attack Jumpee directly or manipulate the terrain to slow him down.

"What was he thinking?!" Amy shouted in disbelief.

"I think he just wanted to be a hero," Knuckles responded as he tried to smash through the Metarex's back with no effect. "And this is not the first time he did something like this either." With a grunt, he moved closer to Jumpee's head and tried again. "I guess not a whole lot has changed in six years, huh?"

Meanwhile, Chris nearly stumbled over a rough patch of sand, but by the time he picked himself up and kept running, Jumpee was practically already on top of him. Chris veered to the right, and by a stroke of luck, it took Jumpee a few seconds to compensate for the change of direction before hopping after him again. And just when things couldn't get any worse for the human, he saw Cosmo in the distance. She had been following everyone from a distance, and when she saw him, she immediately became distressed.

She opened her mouth to say something, but no words would come. She was in complete disbelief that Chris would something like this. She started to run after him, but stopped after a few steps because she didn't want to get too close to the fight.

He was terrified. He feared that any moment now, the gigantic Metarex would crush him for trying to deceive him. His plan had fallen apart, and now he was about to pay for it. But at the last possible second, he felt himself being scooped up by Sonic and speeding across the desert. He was forced to close his eyes.

"Chris, what on Mobius were you thinking?!" Sonic asked in alarm, cradling the boy close to his chest.

Chris had a tough time inhaling due to how fast he was going, but when he spoke, his voice was shaky.

"I-I-I was trying to distract him," he admitted.

Sonic sighed. "Hey, your heart was in the right place, I'll give you that, but you could have been killed! Besides, you've never seen a Planet Egg before; you only know what we told you about them."

"I know, but I didn't know that part about them!" Chris protested. "And I didn't think he would see through it that easily!"

"Hey, it's fine," Sonic said. "Just think about it first before doing anything. …Actually, I don't think, I just go, but it doesn't hurt to use a little common sense once in a while!"

"…Sorry…" Chris mumbled. He almost didn't hold back a yelp as Sonic skidded to an abrupt stop in front of the Typhoon, spraying sand ahead of him. But to his surprise, Sonic grinned at him.

"Don't be," he said as he gently set Chris down. "You were just trying to help. You'll find your spot soon enough, I know it!"

When Sonic looked up, he could see that the Sonic Driver was fully extended and pointed in the direction he had come from, a sign that Tails had safely made it back and was ready for Sonic. He lifted his wrist and activated his comlink.

"All set, Tails!" he said. "Here comes the hedgehog!"

He turned to Chris, who was warily looking around the desert where he had just come from in case the Metarex was still following them. Sonic highly doubted it, because he was too fast for him.

"You might wanna get inside," Sonic told Chris. "You'll be a lot safer in the Typhoon."

"O-Okay!" said Chris. He scrambled up the now-extended ramp and disappeared inside the ship. Once he was out of sight, Sonic zipped to the front of the ship and hopped inside the barrel of the cannon before running all the way to the back.

"Okay, start your spin, Sonic!" Tails ordered over the intercom.

Sonic grinned. "All right, let's do it to it!"

Tightening his fists, he stood on the central platform, before hopping into the air and spinning in place. As he spun, his energy charged the cannon, and his motivation was charged too; in fact, he felt more motivated to destroy Jumpee than he did when he destroyed the Metarex they called Spike.

Meanwhile, Knuckles, Amy, and Cream were desperately trying to stop Jumpee in his tracks. Instead of chasing after Sonic, he had turned around and was continuing on his original course. Knowing that his opponents couldn't do much more than swarm around him, he didn't bother trying to attack them. Not even team attacks were effective other than making small chips and dents in his armor, which was arguably more progress than they was making before.

Amy and Cream had improvised a team attack where Amy hammered Cheese into Jumpee's armor over and over. Fortunately it did no harm to Cheese since the small Chao was prepared for this. He was slowly damaging Jumpee, but not enough to stop him in his tracks. Meanwhile, Knuckles was trying to dig trenches around Jumpee, but he kept jumping over them.

"Hey Knuckles, it's not worth it!" Amy called, making sure to keep her eyes on Cheese as she ran alongside Jumpee.

"But it's gotta have a weak spot somewh–HRRGH!"

Amy and Cream gasped in shock as Jumpee suddenly wrapped its tongue around Knuckles, pinning his arms to his sides. Speaking of shock, that was exactly what its tongue did to Knuckles. Electricity coursed through and around his body, and he let out a roar of pain as the voltage seemed to increase. Amy screamed as she ran toward Jumpee with her hammer.

"You should have listened to your friends," Jumpee told Knuckles as he feebly struggled.

"You. Let. Him. Go. Right. This. Instant!" she demanded, slamming her hammer against Jumpee's tongue to punctuate each of her words. After several seconds, the Metarex finally let go, and few loose sparks leaped onto Amy's dress, making her flinch, but they were otherwise harmless.

With gritted teeth, Amy took a few cautious steps away from Jumpee, holding her hammer at the ready as Knuckles collapsed to the ground.

"Cream, take Knuckles and get somewhere safe," she ordered.

"O-Okay!" Cream responded.

She ran toward Knuckles and took his hand in both of hers. Then, with a labored grunt, she flapped her ears and took off. Cheese saw that Cream was struggling and flew over to help her lift Knuckles across the desert to relative safety. She was scared both inside and outside, but she was trying her hardest not to let it show for Knuckles' sake.

Amy felt even more tense now that she was the only one left who was fighting Jumpee. The Metarex kept getting farther away from her, and it covered more and more ground with each hop it made, and soon Amy was no longer able to keep up with him no matter how fast she ran. Even worse, she was starting to recognize some familiar landmarks. She knew Jumpee was getting close to his destination.

To top it all off, she accidentally tripped over a rock she didn't see, landing flat on her face in the sand. She picked herself up, dusting the sand off her face and dress. She was going to have to shower as soon as she got back to the Typhoon… When she looked up, Jumpee was too far away for her to do anything, but it still didn't stop her from trying.

With a last surge of desperation, she picked up her fallen hammer and hurled it with everything she had at the distant Metarex. While impressive, the distance it flew wasn't quite enough to reach Jumpee, and it landed harmlessly in the sand roughly thirty feet behind him.

However, in the very next moment, the tide of the battle turned in her favor. She could have easily blinked and missed the blue bolt of pure energy that cut through the core of Jumpee. There was a visible hole through his armor that she could see through the other side of, and sparks and electricity jumped from the hole.

"This is inconceivable!" he exclaimed.

"You better believe it, 'cuz this is happening!" said Sonic as he landed on his feet and faced the Metarex. "Everybody hit him with all ya got!"

Sonic's words reached Cream, who was watching from behind a rock. She immediately leaped too her feet and looked around for Cheese, before quickly spotting him on the other side of her.

"I'll be right back, Mr. Knuckles," she said before running across the desert toward Sonic.

Sonic smirked as Amy and Cream gathered around him, but as they were launching their final attack, Jumpee began to speak.

"Jumpee unit 204 to Station Proxima. Requesting a Liberation Force to System 5011 Mobius, Planet–"

But before he could finish putting his request through, Sonic, Amy, and Cream all struck the heavily damaged frog Metarex at the same time, then cleared out at the last second as a brilliant explosion ripped across the desert landscape. Huge chunks of armor spread out in all directions, and Sonic shielded Amy and Cream from the blast. Shreds of armor flew past his head, nearly hit him, but thankfully missed. Ultimately, all three of them were unharmed.

Everyone was left panting from the effort they put into the fight over the last twenty minutes, and their bodies were trembling as their adrenalin levels were finally going back down to normal levels. No one said a word for a whole minute, and the desert was completely silent except for the crackling sound of the burning wreckage of the Metarex not far away from them.

"Are… A-Are all Metarex like that…?" Amy finally spoke, her voice shaking as she glanced warily at the remains of Jumpee.

"I sure hope not…" responded Knuckles as he slowly made his way toward the others. He grinned. "Looks like you guys did a number to that thing. Wish I could've joined you."

"Hey, you did what you could, Knux," Sonic said. "That's all that matters. You hangin' in there okay?"

Knuckles nodded with a smirk. "Yeah, I'll walk it off."

"But you got zapped by the Metarex," Cream recalled, urgency in her tone as she approached Knuckles and examined him all over. "That looked like it really hurt…"

Amy nodded, showing her own sentiment. "It did hurt. I saw you; you were screaming in pain! You and I are going straight to the infirmary when we get back to the ship, Knuckles," she told the echidna. But his smile was unwavering.

"Nah, I'm good," he said. "If I can walk, I can walk. That's all that really matters. It just tingles a little. But thanks anyway."

"But still…" Cream didn't seem to want to take no for an answer. She wanted her friend to feel better, even if he didn't look injured on the outside.

Meanwhile, Sonic was putting in a call on his comlink.

"Hey Tails, Cosmo, Chris, can you guys hear me?" he spoke. "This Metarex has officially croaked! So fire up those afterburners; we're on our way back!"

"Oh, before we do that…!" Amy took a few steps around the burning wreckage, flinching at the sudden heat of the flames. "This planet is already humid enough without a fire added to the mix…" she mumbled.

"Are you looking for the Chaos Emerald, Miss Amy?" Cream asked. "We can help you!"

She and Cheese flew above the desert until they were about a hundred feet in the air, making sure to steer clear of the smoke. There was hardly any wind on Secco, so the smoke was rising straight up for the most part.

"Allow me," said Knuckles as he ran in a beeline toward a specific spot in the desert, roughly two hundred feet away from Jumpee. Within seconds, he reached into the sand and was triumphantly holding up the cyan Chaos Emerald for everyone else to see.

"Huh, didn't know it wound up all the way out there," Sonic said. "Well, now that we saved the day once again and kicked some Metarex butt, let's get this Emerald safe inside, and then I'm gonna go for one last run around this planet before we take off!"

As the four heroes and Chao embarked on their trek back to the Typhoon, they saw Cosmo ahead of them, and far beyond her lay the Typhoon. They saw that The Sonic Driver had since been stowed back into the front of the ship. The Seedrian looked up when she saw the others approaching.

"Was everything okay…?" she asked warily as she walked alongside them.

"Well, it took a licking and kept on ticking, that's for sure," Sonic commented. Cosmo tilted her head in confusion.

"Um… what does that mean?" she asked. "Sorry…"

"He means the Metarex was way stronger than we thought," Amy explained, and Sonic nodded his confirmation, "and at first we couldn't do anything about it, but then Sonic and Tails used the Sonic Driver, and that's what finally destroyed it!"

"Oh…" Cosmo said thoughtfully. She wasn't disappointed, but it was a lot for her to think about. She knew the Metarex were extremely durable, but she didn't think they would be almost too much for even the Mobians to handle. That could pose a serious problem later down the road.

But then a new thought crossed her mind, a thought that had been plaguing her for the past ten minutes.

"But… B-But why did Chris steal the Planet Egg…?" she asked. "He doesn't seem to be the type to be selfish, but… why…? "

Sonic's comlink crackled to life, startling him, until he realized he forgot to hang up the call with Tails when he was done giving his report earlier.

"I don't know…" Tails spoke over Sonic's comlink. "From what it sounds like, Chris was just trying to help out in any way he knew how."

"When I got him back to the Typhoon, I told him he'd find his place around here," Sonic added. "He's a cool dude, so he'll come around sooner or later!"

"I mean, he does cook pretty well for a teen boy," Amy complimented. "I still can't believe he's an adult already… But it seems like he wants more than that, like… like he wants to fight on our level."

"I was talking to him about that earlier," Tails said. "But you're right, Sonic. We need to help him find his place here."

"And I'm positive it's gonna come naturally," Sonic said with a grin, before turning to Cosmo. "Hey, Mobius to Cosmo, you still with us?"

"Huh?" Cosmo looked up at Sonic; it was apparent to him that she had been daydreaming again. "O-Ohh, sorry."

"I know you're pretty worried about Chris, but he didn't mean any harm when he tried to make that fake Planet Egg– yeah, it was fake, it didn't have the same shine as the real one, in fact, I didn't see any shine at all! It was just a beach ball, y'know, the one we bought back in town? He was just trying to help; I knew what he was doing. He was trying to lead that frog away from the real Planet Egg which is still in the ground. He just didn't know all the details is all."

Cosmo silently pondered this; Sonic did bring up some good points. She didn't think it was possible to create a fake Planet Egg out of something as simple as a beach ball, especially when she was sure he had never seen a Planet Egg in person before.

"Are any of you hurt?" Tails asked over the comlink. "Because I can get the infirmary up and running in no time."

Amy leaned toward Sonic's comlink, "Knuckles is hurt," she said without missing a beat. "I have a few scrapes but I can walk it off."

"What happened to Knuckles?" Tails asked, his voice a little quieter now.

"Jumpee wrapped its tongue around him and electrocuted him," she explained cautiously, practically hearing Tails wince on the other end of the comlink. She threw a glance in Knuckles' direction. "He insists he's fine."

"And I mean it…!" exclaimed Knuckles in a hushed tone.

"And he says he means it," Amy relayed.

"O-Okay, I'll get it set up right away!" Tails called, and Amy smiled in satisfaction. She was not about to see her friend go around with an untreated injury as bad as the shock that he had suffered. She knew what it was like to be electrocuted, and she knew it was better to get it treated sooner than later. Being tough wasn't everything.

The walk was silent for a moment afterwards, and the group of five continued their trip back to the Typhoon.

"Hey, Sonic…" began Knuckles after about a minute. "You think any of this would have happened if we didn't start fighting each other?"

Sonic shrugged his shoulders. "Nah, the Metarex would have still found a way to get the Planet Egg. It would have just been less obvious. Not that we wouldn't catch 'em anyway or anything!"

"Maybe… it's better to be deceived than it is to deceive others?" Cosmo commented thoughtfully.

"That's true," replied Amy, "but not always, because sometimes you can end up accidentally tricking someone with false information because you've been tricked."

"I understand," Cosmo said as she looked up at the Typhoon in the distance. "When I think about it, I have something else in common with Knuckles. We're both the last of our kind now… but we both like to see the good side of everyone."

Knuckles nodded. "That's true," he said. "Even Eggman's got some good in him somewhere."

Cosmo blinked in surprise, and she looked up at the echidna. "Do you really think so?" she asked.

"I do," Knuckles responded, the slightest smirk forming on his muzzle. "Although… now that I'm thinking about it, that could be why I keep getting tricked by him. But it's not gonna happen again, I swear!"

Sonic playfully rolled his eyes, knowing it was only a matter of time before it inevitably would happen again.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Knucklehead," he said with a smirk.

"I mean it! I'm not the same echidna I was when we met!"

"You sure? You both happen to have the same name, you sure it's not a coincidence?"

"Hey, if Shadow and Gemerl and Jet can all turn a new leaf, then so can Eggman! It's only a matter of time, I swear!"

Cosmo looked like she was on edge for a moment because the two of them looked like they were about to fight again, but they settled down before long.

"Dr. Eggman still scares me…" Cosmo admitted, shuddering at the memory of her close call with Eggman. "And his robots remind me of the Metarex… In fact, when I first saw his robot, I thought it was a Metarex."

"Aww, poor thing…" Amy walked over to Cosmo and gently gave her a hug, which the Seedrian gratefully returned.

"Eh, his robots have way more pizazz than the Metarex any day," Sonic said with a shrug. "They're a lot more creative too, I'll give him that."

"Maybe, but he still uses them for evil," pressed Cosmo, "and I don't like that."

"Hey," Sonic said, dropping his voice, and he lay his hand on Cosmo's shoulder. She briefly tensed up for a moment at the sudden touch, before relaxing. "As long as me and my friends are around, the Metarex aren't gonna lay a finger on you, and that's a promise. Hedgehog's honor!"

Cosmo found herself smiling at the hedgehog's confidence. "Thank you," she said quietly. She looked like she wanted to say something else, and it was right at the tip of her tongue, but she forgot what it was.

"Oh yeah, Cosmo," Sonic said, looking over at the Seedrian. "Just remembered what I wanted to talk to you about earlier."

Cosmo blinked in confusion. "Oh…? Oh, that's right… There was something you wanted to tell me."

"So I was thinkin' about what you said before… That you never heard of a beach, or scuba diving…" He was about to continue when Cosmo spoke up.

"Is… that a problem?" she asked.

"Oh, no, not a problem at all!" Sonic said, quickly shaking his head. "It just kinda took me by surprise when you told us about it. And it got me thinking, though… What was it like for you up in space? What were you doing that you never heard of a beach before?" He dropped his own voice. "Did, uh… did you ever land on any other planets?"

Cosmo was slightly overwhelmed by all of the sudden questions, and she faltered for a moment as she tried to process anything. Amy and Cream glanced at her in worry, but Cosmo took a deep breath and responded.

"It's… a long story," she admitted. "And I, um… I don't know if I'm ready to tell you yet. It's… still fresh… if that makes sense." She shook her head. "I'm sorry if I let you down."

"Hey, there's nothing to be sorry for," Sonic gently told her. "What you went through was really traumatic. But we're here to listen in case you ever do wanna open up, okay?"

Cosmo nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Sonic," she said. She was truly grateful to Sonic for being willing to help her. Yet she knew she was the only one who could help herself. As much as she wanted to talk to Sonic and everyone else about what her life was like up in space, she wasn't ready yet. She couldn't confront her pain. It was too soon.

"So Tails, when are we takin' off?" Sonic asked his little brother on his comlink.

"Uh, not yet," Tails responded. "There's still something else I need to get done here first."

"Like what?" asked a curious Amy.

"Well… I kinda underestimated how fast we've been going through our water supply since we left Mobius," Tails explained. "We went from 100% down to about 71% in just the last week. So I gotta top that off first, and make a few tweaks to make sure we don't use too much water at once. That, and I wanna try something first. So… I estimate we'll be here for about two more days before we take off for the next planet."

"A-Are you sure that's a good idea, Tails?" Amy asked, her brow furrowed in skepticism. "Because Eggman's still here, and if he doesn't attack us again, he'll take off ahead of us and get to the Chaos Emeralds first."

"Yeah, I know, I thought of that, don't worry," Tails said. "But this is really important. Because I've been thinking about Chris ever since I talked with him earlier. He just did something really reckless just to try and fit in, and… and I feel bad for him. That's why I need to make sure he really does fit in with us."

"Funny you say that, I was gonna talk to him myself," Sonic said with an amused grin, before relaxing his expression. "So anyway, what were you thinkin' of doing, lil bro?"

Tails chuckled. "When Chris and I were catching up last week, he told me he flew the X-Tornado, and, well… I was thinking about it for a bit, and I got an idea: what if I teach him how to fly the regular Tornado? Then if he can get the hang of that, I can build him his own plane if he wants."

"Way past cool idea, bud!" Sonic commented. "Then we'll have an extra pilot on the team!"

"I'm actually pretty excited about it," Tails added.

"Yeah, can't wait to see his flying skills for myself!" Sonic said. "Meet you guys at the ship!" And with that, he blasted across the remaining stretch of the desert toward the Typhoon.

He boarded the ship, which still had its ramp extended to the ground. Once inside, he sped through the halls to the living quarters. In the short amount of time he had spent on the Typhoon, he had gradually gotten used to its layout, and he had run through it several times a day, so it was no wonder that besides Tails, he was the first to memorize its layout.

When he arrived outside of Chris' room, he was just about to lay his gloved hand in the doorknob when his ears twitched. He could hear the boy's voice on the other side of the door. It sounded like he was recording a voice message. Listening in for a bit, Sonic concluded that it was a status update, kind of like the ones Tails had been recording. Except he didn't sound excited the way Tails had sounded.

Once he was sure it was over, he pushed open the door to see Chris sitting on the edge of his bed, fiddling with a pencil.

"Hey, buddy," Sonic said warmly as he stepped into the room. "What'cha doin' all the way up here?"

Chris looked down at the floor, hesitating for a moment before looking up at Sonic.

"Just… thinking, I guess," he mumbled.

"Lemme guess, about being a hero?"

"I don't know anymore…" Chris sighed, and he sounded truly annoyed with himself. "I just put myself in danger over something stupid… and if it got any worse, I could have put you all in danger."

Sonic shrugged. "You didn't put anyone in danger," he stated as if it was fact.

"I… guess I didn't really change from all those years ago, huh…? When I stole the Chaos Emeralds and almost got you killed that night… That was all my fault, it should never have happened. And now today…"

Chris' voice trailed off, and Sonic knew that the boy was going through a lot. He had been carrying a huge burden for the last week, and possibly much longer than that.

"Hey, you shouldn't compare yourself to who you were all that time ago like that," Sonic said as he leaned against the wall, his gaze still fixated on Chris. "That's not healthy. Look at who you are now; you've come a long way, haven't you, Chris? When you made that fake Planet Egg, you didn't know that what Jumpee said was true. Your heart was in the right place, you just… didn't have all the facts yet. Oh yeah, I gotta ask, how did you come up with a fake Planet Egg anyway?"

"Oh, uh, I just took the beach ball we bought and filled it with lights, and put white tape all over it," Chris casually responded, like it should have been obvious. But now that he was saying it out loud, it sounded like an even stupider idea than it was at the time.

"I think it was a super cool idea," encouraged Sonic. "He started chasing you, but that means he had to stop going after the Planet Egg, which ended up buying us some extra time. You did good, kid!"

"I'm not a kid…" Chris muttered. " Technically not, anyway."

"Sorry, sorry," Sonic said, sweatdropping. "Still… kinda used to you being 12 or 13. You look 12 or 13, and that's kinda throwing me off."

"It's fine," Chris said. "I guess it's… i-it's a lot harder being a hero than you guys make it look like."

However, Sonic seemed to read between the lines of what Chris was saying, and he sat down on the bed next to Chris.

"You still don't feel like you're part of the team, huh?"

Chris hesitated for a moment, his eyes still not meeting Sonic's, before he slowly nodded.

"Mhmm…" he said. "When… When you were on Earth, I actually felt like I was helpful because I could guide you around, since you were on a new planet and… and I knew that you knew I was helpful. You all said you trusted me more than most adults because I was one of you. But now… Now I feel like dead weight. Like, there is nothing for me to do here. I'm not like you. I can't be your guide on your own home planet. And I definitely can't be your guide in space."

There was a thoughtful silence as Chris' words hung in the air. And then Sonic spoke.

"You're you, Chris. That's what makes you part of the team."

…Well, Chris couldn't say he expected Sonic to say that.

"You don't have to fight or be strong or fast like us in order to help out," explained Sonic as he stood up and started pacing. "Doing science-y stuff like finishing Tails' inventions is a big help since he says he doesn't always have time to finish all his projects. Just, uh…" He dropped his voice. "Don't do it all the time, though, he told me he wants all his stuff a certain way. But I'll let it slide this time, 'cuz you ended up saving my life!"

Chris watched him with bated breath. He was glad that at least Sonic wasn't mad at him for tinkering with his best friend's inventions.

"But anyway, gettin' sidetracked there. Helping out with inventions is a big help, even something like cooking or cleaning is a big help since we don't always have time for that. It may not look too fun or exciting, but it doesn't make you any less of a team player. And I agree with Tails, we're gonna help you find somewhere where you'll feel comfortable and you'll know you'll be the most help. And if you don't like it, we can always find you something else to do. Sound good?"

"Y-Yeah, thanks Sonic," Chris said, and the hedgehog responded with a thumbs-up. Chris was grateful inside that Sonic was aware of the position he was in, and he was offering to help him feel included, even though his former role in the friend circle was completely moot in space.

Sonic turned to leave the room, but before he reached the door, he turned around.

"Oh by the way, Tails says we're gonna stay here on Secco for two more days," he said.

"Okay," Chris said. He was somewhat indifferent about the fox's decision.

"He's gonna fix up the Typhoon a bit, and also…" He smirked playfully at the young man. "…you might wanna get back in the pilot's seat."

Chris blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?" He was even more perplexed when the hedgehog's grin widened.

"'Cuz Tails says wants to show you how to fly the Tornado; that way, you can be our eyes in the skies whenever he's not able to!"

Chris immediately perked up. This was his big chance to prove himself as truly helpful to his friends during their missions.

"I'll give it a shot," Chris declared, sounding a bit better than before. "I know how to fly the X-Tornado, and if it's easy enough for me, then I might be able to handle the regular Tornado too no problem."

"I know how to fly too, so you don't have to wait for Tails to take lessons! C'mon, I can teach you right now!"

"Really?" Chris asked, hesitantly rising to his feet.

"Yeah! Get the lead out, Chris!"

"No one says that anymore, Sonic…"

"Hey, trends come and go, just like me!"

Chris chuckled as he stepped toward the door. He had to jog to follow Sonic down the hall. There was no containing the hedgehog's excitement. If everything worked out, then this would mean that Chris would have a new position in the Typhoon Crew where he would fit in and prove himself to be a valuable asset!


The Crimson Egg – Third-person POV

"Confonded Metarex," grumbled Eggman under his breath as he stepped back onto the bridge of the Crimson Egg. "I was so close to getting that Chaos Emerald. The rodents weren't bluffing when I watched them struggle against the one on Mobius."

Having treated his own injuries in the Crimson Egg's medbay, he sat down in his command seat and looked out over the vast landscape of Secco where he had barely evacuated with his life. He was mildly upset at Bokkun for blowing his cover, yet the messenger robot was right about there being a Metarex on the planet. And here Eggman thought he was using the Metarex's presence as a ruse to get close to the Emerald.

Still, at the very least, this was a way for him to test the waters against the Metarex. As brutal as his defeat was, it wasn't a total loss, because he proved to himself that the alien warriors were as strong as Sonic made them out to be, if not stronger. He would have to build stronger robots, because Jumpee made short work of his Egg Mars almost as fast as Sonic usually did. As he was now, he wasn't prepared for them if all the Metarex were like that.

Decoe and Bocoe stepped onto the bridge a moment later to see the doctor staring out across the horizon.

"Doctor, we have deployed a probe unit to the wreckage of the Egg Mars," Decoe reported.

"And?" Eggman droned without looking up.

"It appears that the body of the Egg Mars is unable to be salvaged. The damage is too complete."

Eggman huffed in annoyance. "All that from a simple electric shock, huh…? We cannot underestimate the Metarex again. But we can at least salvage the scrap metal and repurpose it, right?"

"Affirmative," Bocoe responded.

"Then bring back the metal and we'll be on our way," Eggman ordered.

"Yes, Doctor!" both robots saluted, before they left the Crimson Egg once more.

As he watched the robots accompany Bokkun and a few probe robots and vehicles as they made their departure across the Secco plains, an idea began to form in Eggman's mind. If the Blue Typhoon were to take off before nightfall, then he would be able to pull it off. But if not, there was always the next planet, or at least the next time he would cross paths with the Metarex, provided the hedgehog didn't get to the Metarex first.

He could only imagine all the reinforced robot designs he could make with a sample of Metarex metal…

Once the three robots appeared half an hour later, they gave their report, and loaded the scrap metal into the cargo bat as per Eggman's direction.

"It wasn't a total loss," Eggman mused as his ship took off and cruised through the stratosphere. "From here, we'll find a new planet where we will mine for resources and create stronger robots. Then I will be prepared to take on the Metarex and become the strongest force this side of the solar system!"

After casually letting out an evil laugh, he continued his monologue.

"We cannot lose sight of the Blue Typhoon," he said. "And yet we run the risk of being seen by them. Do not underestimate Tails and his genius… although I will admit, I still have an edge over him in the IQ department!"

"Here we go again…" Decoe whispered to Bocoe, knowing that they were about to endure yet another one of the doctor's long-winded speeches.

Meanwhile, the first thing Bokkun did when he returned to the Crimson Egg was to head below deck. But when he approached the door to his bedroom and opened it, his stomach dropped.

He had forgotten all about her .

He took a deep breath and was about to shout something at her, but the bat put a finger to her lips and shushed him. It was probably for the best that Bokkun didn't raise his voice, because while it would bring Eggman running, it would also mean his secret would be out.

"Get out of my room…!" Bokkun demanded in a shushed voice.

"Aww, but this bed is so cozy, I don't wanna leave~" Rouge playfully complained.

"I don't care! This is my room! Get your own room or something!"

" Aaaanyway , you did a lovely job today," Rouge told him, her voice silky smooth. "The plan fell apart at the end, but oh well. I didn't think there would be a Metarex ambush like that. I almost had the Emerald there. But only almost, and 'almost' isn't good enough for me. But don't worry, there's always another chance. And I'm looking forward to working with you again."

Bokkun crossed his arms and looked away. "N-No thank you!" he declared. "I-I don't wanna–"

Rouge reached into Hammerspace and held up an all-too-familiar gold locket.

"I'm looking forward… to working… with you again," she said with a smirk, enunciating every word to hammer her point home. A shiver ran through Bokkun's spine.

"F-Fine…!" Bokkun whimpered, his confidence caving. "I-I'll do whatever you say, I promise! But this doesn't mean I'm your slave or anything!"

Rouge shook her head. "Of course not, Bokkie," she purred, and Bokkun shuddered at the nickname she came up with on the spot. "This is just assurance that your little 'secret' doesn't go out. And it's in return for you keeping me a secret like we talked about earlier. Well, now that we reached a deal, you can have your room back. See you around!"

The messenger robot finally had his room to himself once Rouge left. It almost felt like she would never leave. He flopped backwards onto the bed, and he felt agitated and trapped as he stared up at the metallic ceiling and all the glow-in-the-dark stars that decorated it at intervals.

He wanted more than anything to get out of this deal that he found himself in. And deep down, he wanted to find a way to get even with Rouge without her revealing his secret. Taking the locket away from her was not an option because she always carried it with her, and no one could ever access anyone else's Hammerspace. Taking it back by force when she was holding it was not an option either, because she was much stronger than he was, and he wasn't designed for physical combat. And she would reveal his secret anyway if he told Eggman, because she would know. She had ears everywhere.

Escape was impossible.

Bokkun didn't know what to do.


A/N: That concludes "An Enemy In Need!" We officially kick off the Bokkun and Rouge subplot with this one, so buckle your seat belts, it's gonna be a wild ride from here on out!

Also, I really wanted to find somewhere where I could reference the "delicious banana" meme from this episode, I really did... but sadly, I couldn't find a place to add it where it wouldn't feel out of place. Sorry about that...

I don't have much to say, but if you have any ideas, compliments, constructive criticism, or anything like that, let me know and I'll reply as soon as I can! I'm genuinely hoping that my quality isn't slipping, because I looked back at some of my 2019 and 2020 stories recently, and I feel like there was a special touch I had then than I don't seem to have now, unless that's just me. Either way, all your thoughts are welcome!

Next time on Tranquility and Order: "A Chilling Discovery", where the Typhoon Crew land on an ice planet and make a... well, the title already says what's gonna happen XD Don't miss it!